SUMMARY The Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis is responsible for deadly plague, a
zoonotic disease established in stable foci in the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia. Its …

Over the past decade, a genomics revolution, made possible through the development of
high-throughput sequencing, has triggered considerable progress in the study of ancient …

The origin of the medieval Black Death pandemic (ad 1346–1353) has been a topic of
continuous investigation because of the pandemic's extensive demographic impact and long …

In the fourteenth century the Old World witnessed a series of profound and abrupt changes
in the trajectory of long-established historical trends. Transcontinental networks of exchange …

Abstract Motivation: Ancient DNA (aDNA) molecules in fossilized bones and teeth,
coprolites, sediments, mummified specimens and museum collections represent fantastic …

The challenge of sequencing ancient DNA has led to the development of specialized
laboratory protocols that have focused on reducing contamination and maximizing the …

In the period between 5,300 and 4,900 calibrated years before present (cal. bp), populations
across large parts of Europe underwent a period of demographic decline,. However, the …

Background Yersinia pestis has caused at least three human plague pandemics. The
second (Black Death, 14–17th centuries) and third (19–20th centuries) have been …

Technological advances in DNA recovery and sequencing have drastically expanded the
scope of genetic analyses of ancient specimens to the extent that full genomic investigations …

The first historically documented pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis began as the
Justinianic Plague in 541 within the Roman Empire and continued as the so-called First …